Exploring determinants of pre-training motivation and training effectiveness: a temporal investigation

Purpose The present study is an attempt to extend previous findings and examine the role of the trainer's reputation, training nomination and training reputation on pre-training motivation and training effectiveness in a business context. Design/methodology/approach The authors hypothesized that trainer reputation, training nomination and training reputation would affect pre-training motivation; and that pre-training motivation would act as a mediator between these three variables and training effectiveness. The sample is constituted by 251 managerial-level employees at a large firm in India who completed pre-training and post-training surveys. These data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling and other inferential techniques. Findings The results suggested that self-nomination positively influences pre-training motivation. Similarly, positive training and trainer reputations also affect pre-training motivation. Pre-training motivation mediates the relationship between trainer reputation, training nomination, training reputation and training effectiveness. Research limitations/implications The method bias and measurement error cannot be ruled out. The data were collected from employees in a single firm via self-reports, and, ceteris paribus, it would be advantageous to broaden the sampling frame to cover multiple organizations with data collected using more than one methodology. However, the temporal lag of 45 days used herein between collecting predictor data and criterion data can reasonably be expected to have mitigated this problem to some extent. Practical implications The findings regarding the reputation suggest that what trainees know or what they believe they know about the trainer or the training program they are going to attend will have a significant impact on their pre-training motivation, and subsequently on the training effectiveness. It is also essential to understand how trainees get information about training. Most often, this information travels through various informal channels and passes through many people, and thus trainees may get inadequate or incorrect information about the training program and the trainer. Originality/value Previous research indicates that only a small proportion of training actually gets transferred to the job (Mackay, 2007). This study augments the literature by putting forward empirical evidence that could be leveraged by firms' senior management teams pursuant of optimizing investments in the training of employees.